right now, negotiations are under way to avoid the fiscal cliff. leaders are scrambling for a last minute deal. we have 35 hours and counting. here is more of president obama talking about the overall situation. >> what congress needs to do is to prevent taxes from going up for the vast majority of americans. and this was a major topic of discussion throughout the campaign. what i said was that we should keep taxes where they were for 98% of americans, 97% of small businesses. but, if we are serious about deficit reduction, make sure the wealthy are paying more and combine it with spending cuts and put the economy on a long term trajectory of growth. over the next 48 hours, my hope is people recognize that regardless of partisan differences, our priority has to be to make sure taxes on middle class families do not go up. that would hurt our economy badly. at a certain point, it is very important for republicans in congress to say we understand we are not going to get 100%. we are willing to compromise in a serious way to solve problems. >> give you